


Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

by SoldierBorn87



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Aquaphobia, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Merman Stiles, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 04:19:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2053332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoldierBorn87/pseuds/SoldierBorn87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the incident at the pool, Stiles is forced to move to the coast in order to protect himself. It's hard, but he severs his ties with Beacon Hills and forces himself to move on. A little over a year later, though, Stiles runs into an unexpectedly familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I would like to thank Ruby for being the best beta/friend ever. You're amazing and I can't thank you enough.

“I don’t think I can do this much longer,” Stiles pants.

Stiles’ whole body aches with the need to change, to embrace the water as it has embraced his call to help hold them up. He can feel the twitch of it in his muscles and the heat of it in his blood and the heaviness of it in his lungs as his body fights against him. But Stiles knows he can’t change, can’t let his body have control. If he does, he may never be able to go back and that is not a sacrifice he is willing to make. Especially not for Derek Hale, power hungry asshole and werewolf douchebag extraordinaire. It just isn’t going to happen.

Stiles grits his teeth and glances across the pool to where his phone is lying temptingly close to the water’s edge. Maybe if he’s fast he can –

“No, no, no! Don’t even think about it!” There’s an edge of panic to Derek’s words that Stiles does his best to ignore; fear is contagious and he seriously cannot afford the distraction right now.

“Would you just trust me this once?”

“No.”

Stiles does his best to contain the urge to lash out. This is neither the time nor the place to have a shouting match.

“I’m the one keeping you alive. Have you noticed that?”

Okay, maybe he doesn’t try to contain it all that hard.

“Yeah. And when the paralysis wears off? Who’s going to be able to fight that thing? Me or you?”

Stiles’ eyes narrow. All right, fine, so he’s not the best fighter – Stiles is totally willing to admit that – but with a plan in hand he can kick anybody’s ass. Just ask every bully who’s ever tried to mess with him or Scott. They know Stiles Stilinski is not to be trifled with. Ever.

“So you think that’s why I’ve been holding you up for the past two hours?” So you can save my sorry ass? Stiles thinks, grinding his teeth. He’s nobody’s damsel in distress. If anyone is playing the part of a damsel in this situation, it’s Derek.

“Yep. You don’t trust me and I don’t trust you. But you need me to survive, which is why you’re _not_ going to let me go.”

Stiles flashes hot with anger. His body is under an extreme amount of stress and he doesn’t need Derek adding to it with his overzealous trust-issues crap. Against his better judgment Stiles has been keeping Derek afloat for longer than humanly possible – not that anyone has noticed, thank god – in eight feet of chilly, nauseatingly chlorinated water. And what is his thanks? Derek, the fucking asshole, thinks he’s doing it because he can’t save himself from a stupid fricking lizard monster that, if past experience is anything to go by, is clearly not interested in killing him. Stiles is so done with this shit.

Derek doesn’t trust him? Fine. He can just deal with his issues while Stiles tries to save their asses without losing everything he’s spent the last eight years trying to protect.

Stiles quickly tosses Derek off his shoulder, ignoring his terrified and outraged shout, and starts swimming towards his phone.

+++

“Stil–!”

Suddenly, there’s water in his mouth and Derek’s swallowing before he can stop himself. It’s reflex. The water burns and his throat starts spasming. Derek coughs, choking and losing air as yet more water rushes in. He tries to stop it, tries to expel the water and close his mouth, but his body isn’t listening. It’s coughing and choking and screaming for air. He needs air. Oh god, he can’t breathe. He needs air. Please, somebody help. He’s drowning.

He’s _drowning._

Derek struggles to rein in his growing panic as he feels his back bump against the bottom of the pool, but it’s impossible. He’s terrified. His heart is racing and his instincts are screaming at him to fight with everything he has, but he knows that it won’t help. Even if he weren’t paralysed from the neck down, he wouldn’t have much hope of getting out of the pool on his own. In this, werewolf biology is not on his side. The same muscles that grant him his superior strength are also far too dense to allow him to do anything but sink in water.

He’s going to die.

Stiles let him go and he’s paralyzed and too heavy and, fuck, he’s going to die.

+++

Stiles stares at his phone in stunned disbelief.

Scott hung up on him.

Scott isn’t coming.

No one is coming.

Fuck. This can’t be happening.

Panic starts to swell within him as Stiles digests the fact that he’s once more trapped in the pool with no way out. For a moment he thinks about calling his dad, but he quickly nixes that idea. He would rather be forced to change and lose everything than see that fucking scary-ass lizard monster lay a single paralytic claw on his father.

Tossing his phone aside, Stiles does the only thing he can do: he dives down to grab Derek.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always welcome and, if you're interested, this is my [tumblr](http://soldier-born87.tumblr.com/).


End file.
